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Bloomberg
After seeing housing costs jump by more than 50 percent in the past five years, officials in Barcelona are moving to introduce Spain’s most aggressive rent controls.
Under a decree, landlords will have to negotiate leases based on benchmark prices set for each property in those neighbourhoods tagged as most desirable. That regulation follows a national law implemented in March that caps annual rent hi-kes at the rate of inflation, currently 1.5 percent.
Spain’s hottest property markets — Madrid, Barcelona, the Basque region, and Valencia — have attracted money from foreign investors such as Blackstone Group and Cerberus Capital Management in recent years just as thousands of landlords converted year-around flats to tourist apartments. Progressive parties that have taken control of city halls blame the foreigners for much of the rent increases. The rules were written by the government of Catalonia and allow similar controls in the region’s smaller towns.